Campaign contributions show same ol’ special interests

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The campaign finance reports filed last week by Coral Gables Vince Lago are pretty boring. He hasn’t raised any money either in his 2025 campaign account or in his political action committee in months, according to the most recent campaign finance records.

Not that he needs to. He has more than $656,000 in the PAC bank for an election in April of 2025.

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The “incumbent” in the Miami District 1 race was suspended by the governor after he was arrested on public corruption charges that include money laundering, bribery and criminal conspiracy. Alex Diaz de la Portilla is accused of abusing his power and selling his vote to give away a public park in exchange for more than $245,000 in contributions to his political action committees.

The charges were not a huge surprise. This is a guy who has had three ghost employees in his office and was recently taken to civil court accused of shaking down a marina operator for a stake in the business.

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Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago had another bad day at City Hall Tuesday.

Not only did he lack the votes to reject the proposed salary increase for himself and vice mayor — a grandstanding move that would have locked in future mayors and vice mayors — and is apparently losing the effort to annex High Pines/Ponce Davis (more on that later), but he was also censured by a majority of the commission for the false and disparaging remarks he has made about them and other critics on a two-week media tour.

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A third name in a week was added to the long list of candidates who could run for Miami-Dade sheriff in 2024: Former and longtime PBA President John Rivera.

His announcement came on the heels of two other big hitters: former Maj. Ignacio “Iggy” Alvarez filed papers last week and former FHP Trooper and Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez said he was seriously considering it after much encouragement.

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